Odisha Health Minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak today resigned from his position after 25 patients were killed and over 100 sustained injuries in an inferno that broke out at SUM Hospital in Bhubaneswar on 17 October evening.

Confirming the development, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said, "Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak has resigned on moral grounds and I have accepted his resignation and sent it to the Governor."

Nayak was arrested on 20 October by police after he surrendered before it and was produced before the Sub Divisional Judicial Magistrate Court in Bhubaneswar last evening.

Rejecting the bail plea of Nayak, the court granted the city police to take Nayak on a two-day remand.

He was booked under section 304 (punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide), 285 (negligent conduct with respect to fire or combustible matÂ­ter) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for poor fire safety measures at his hospital.